Umm Salal coach Patrice Carteron spoke to the media ahead of their 2023-2024 season Expo Stars League Week 10 match against Al Duhail.

“Al Duhail are a strong team, a difficult competitor and includes good players. In such matches, you have one goal that must be achieved, and I expect the confrontation to be difficult, like all of the team’s matches. We, in turn, are strongly prepared, especially since our last meeting with Al Gharafa in the ninth round.

“Our goal was hit in a difficult time, yet the team played a strong match, and I am confident in the abilities of the Umm Salal players, and we strive against Al Duhail not to repeat the mistakes. Therefore, we studied all the matters related to the opposing team.

“I hope we would be successful in the match, achieve victory and score goals that would help us get the three points for which we would play, and give off our best in the match,” said Carteron.

Umm Salal player Sayed Hassan said, “The Al Duhail match is important for us  and we seek to win in order to advance in the league table, especially since the team is performing at great levels. We closed the chapter of Al Gharafa match, even though we played a big and strong match, and luck was not on our side.

“The preparations went off well as usual and were very strong at the technical, physical and tactical levels in order to appear well. We have a strategy led by coach Carteron and we can face Al Duhail and present a strong match in order to win and get the three points.

“Umm Salal are playing great matches this season because we have players at the highest level and we have a strong team that can be a match for Al Duhail in this match despite its difficulty.”